Castabala

CASTA´BALA(Καστάβαλα: Eth. Κασταβαλενς), a city of Cilicia, one of the praefectures of Cappadocia. Strabo (p. 537) describes Castabala and Cybistra, as not far from Tyana, but as still nearer to the mountain (Taurus). Pliny (Plin. Nat. 6.3) enumerates Castabala with Tyana among the Cappadocian towns. In Castabala there was a temple of Artemis Perasia, where they said that the priestesses walked with bare feet over live coals unhurt. (See Groskurd's Note, Strabo, Transl. 2. p. 453, on the proposals to amend the reading Perasia, which the context of Strabo shows to be his genuine reading.) The site of this place has not yet been fixed satisfactorily, but it may be at Nigde, NE. of Bor. The epigraph on the coins of Castabala is ἱεροπολις κασταβ.
[G.L]